Pages

Monday, 16 December 2013

A Christmas Letter

This is our second Christmas in Canada. We've never been organised enough to send out Christmas cards, let along write a Christmas letter. We love receiving them, bring them on please! So here is our attempt.

The O'Hara's Christmas Letter 2013

Well, haven't the last 20 months just flown by! We've had too many good times to count since we've been here. We've eaten great food, made great friends and travelled to some amazing places. As we keep telling our bank, we're here for a good time, not a long time. Some highlights of our Canadian time include;

Meeting my brother in New York;

Travelling with our Canadian and Australian friends to Vegas;

Going to Taco parties in LA;

Going to Chicago with our friends from Mexico;

Going to weddings in Wisconsin and California; and

Visiting the Niagara Falls on the American side.

We've been doing our best to integrate ourselves into Canadian life. I'd say around 50% of the time it's been a success. Sometimes lost in translation gets us confused, sometimes it's our skills. Here's some things that we haven't quite gotten right:

O'Hara has been fishing around 10 times. Not even a nibble. He has seen them swimming past his line on an underwater camera. They're just not interested.

I can't shovel the snow from the driveway with any success.

O'Hara ran the car into a snow bank, because he was distracted by an excavator.

I spend too long talking to border security, in the hopes they are distracted and give us extra passport stamps.

O'Hara's toenail has left a scar on someones ankle.

I will be the only one in the room laughing at beaver jokes. Other times I make beaver jokes in inappropriate company or at inappropriate times.

O'Hara is maintaining the Ugg boots are appropriate to be worn by men. No one agrees.

I still think that east is towards the coast. I get people lost when giving directions.

O'Hara is a retardant for wildlife. He's down about 15-1 for bear sightings with me.

I thought that the large bins that appeared around Halloween were for waste pumpkins. O'Hara carried mouldy carved pumpkins up our driveway to the street, only to find them full of sand. For the ice. Obviously.

O'Hara bought one set of warm, one set of cold lights for the Christmas decorations outside. Two-toned is not trendy.

I make fun of Canadians too much. It's too easy. #sorrynotsorry.

O'Hara asked two girls if they wanted to dink with him on his bike to the pub. That means something different here.

We've had some great successes. We've travelled to places we never saw in our future and seen things most people only see on TV or in postcards. Some of our best successes include:

Living in Canada for nearly 2 years and not ending every sentence with 'eh!";

Instead referring to everything as "brutal";

Doing fully sick "jumps" on our snowboards;

Conveying sarcasm;

Using our "Canadian" accents to translate from Australian. "Oh Heeirra";

Fly kicking Christmas trees;

Loving the shit out of poutine; and

Travelling further east in Canada than most of the Canadians we've met.

We love having guests and have had some wonderful times with our friends and family. More of you are welcome. Have I not made this clear enough?! We've explored, hiked, fished, kayaked, camped, swam, drank, eaten, played candy crush, snowboarded, sledded, skated and talked with some of our favourite people in the world. Our most favourite guest of all? ...... Gilly! I managed to win her back over after two nights and a few walks up Kenna Cartwright. I thought that friendship was over, so what a relief when she loved me again!

As my Christmas gift to every one, O'Hara and I got out the cheese and created some wonderful "traditional" Christmas photos. I am taking a huge risk putting these online guys. These photos will probably end up on that "AFP" website (I'm not saying the full name, otherwise it might come up in a search). Y'all are welcome! Merry Christmas xxx

Oh my GOODNESS! Gifts xxx

Cringey, cringe, cringe!

You can probably tell, we're basically Canadian now. I'm surprised they haven't handed us new passports yet.